And sheep will safely graze is a good title for this photo sent to me by my friend Gill Henwood. She took it at one of my favourite places, namely The Holy Island of Lindisfarne, off the Northumbrian coast. Today it is a contrasting place being a place of Pilgrimage and a place for visitors, of which there are many. Holy Island can hold these two roles in creative tension because twice a day, thanks to the North Sea tidal waters, it becomes an Island. Those who have experienced the moment when the visitors have gone and the Island becomes truly that, will sense that the land seems to sigh deeply and take a breath. Of course, there is a third group of people for whom Lindisfarne is ‘home’. The small but dedicated folk who live on the island are its heartbeat. It is not easy to scrape a living but it is also itself a way of life.

The Island has a history steeped in the Christian faith and is rightly regarded as the Northern cradle of faith because it was here that St. Aidan of Iona, trained and then sent out missionaries to proclaim the Christian faith to the North, the Midlands, the Yorkshire hills and the coastal plain of Essex.
It has suffered much over the generations, from raiders from the Viking lands and many others. Today it is more peaceful with an abiding sense of holiness. That itself is a reminder that holiness is conferred by God on those who are steadfast in the faith. It is a gift which cannot be earned, and is given to those whose lives are steeped in love and prayer and service. Corporately, it is possible to say that this Island has achieved just that.

Gill took the photos and then pondered the contrast between Lindisfarne today and the world far away where violence has again erupted. The Contrast is between Holy Island and the Holy Land. This is her poem. [Mr G]

Contrasts…

Here where Vikings ravaged the peace of the monastic settlement

Long before a castle was fortified

Where prayer echoed the song of the larks overhead

And the hidden nesting of the Eiders quietly inconspicuous

Here there is peace again.

On a far coast, in a place of repeated conflict over millennia

People pray, fearful in the violence

O Lord have mercy upon us

Gill Henwood, Lindisfarne October 2023